Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Mmmmmmmmm so good.  This weekend was a rainy weekend - perfect for making bread.....Cinnamon Raisin Bread at that!  Jolie (my daughter) and I had so much fun making this recipe together.  Not only did she get to roll out the dough but as you can see above, she got to sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mixture and then raisins ontop of the dough. Lots of fun....yummy fun.

Peek-a-boo! This is one of my favorite parts of making bread - discovering that it has risen.  It's a beautiful beautiful thing.  As you see from the picture above this recipe makes 3 loaves of bread which is great - 1 or 2 to keep and the 3rd to give away.  It's a lovely thing!

I discovered this recipe from one of my newest cook-books, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  I can't say enough about this book.  Easy to follow recipes along with a wealth of information for baking bread.  I highly recommend it.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups lukewarm water

1 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 tbsp granulated yeast (2 packs)

1 1/2 tbsp Kosher salt

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

6 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup raisins (more if needed)

Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp water)

Butter or neutral-tasting oil for greasing pans

Directions:

1. Mix the yeast, salt and sugar with the lukewarm water and buttermilk in a large bowl (I used my Kitchen Aid bowl and this worked fine)

2. Mix in the flour using either a spoon or the dough hook of your Kitchen Aid mixer.  If you are not using a mixer, you may need to use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of flour.

3. Cover with a clean dish towel and allow to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top) - this takes approximately 2 hours.

4. The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise or it can be refrigerated in a lidded (not airtight) container and used over the next 7 days. 

5. Grease your loaf pans and set aside.

6. Dust work surface with flour along with a 1 1/2 lb piece (cantelope size) of the dough and the rolling pin.

7.  Roll out into a 8x16-inch rectangle about 1/4-inch thick.

8. With a pastry brush cover surface of dough with egg wash.  Mix together the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle 1/3 of the mixture over dough evenly.  Do the same with the raisins.

9. Starting from the short side, roll up dough "jelly-roll" style.  Pinch the edges and ends together, tucking the ends under.

10. Place loaf seam side down in prepared pan.  Allow to rest 40 minutes (if you are using refrigerated dough allow 1 hour and 40 minutes of rest time).

11.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

12. Bake for 35-40 minutes

13. Remove from pan and cool completely before slicing.

**I know this is a ton of steps but they are so easy and well worth it in the end I promise you that!

Happy Raisin Cinnamon Bread baking!

I had to include one last picture for it includes my cat, Lucy in the background.  Love her! :-)